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Topic: curiosity question (Read 1494 times)

I was up watching a hive that has a virgin queen, hoping to see her orienting. Well I got to wondering as I watched all the bees orienting. I wondered what is the age of the bees that are orienting (not talking queens)? Do the orient as soon as they hatch? Do they orient after they have done the nursing stint?

I am not 100% sure, but I think they orient as they transition from 'house' bees (nurse, cleaning, wax building) to 'field' bees (foraging). But again, I'm not 100% on this and would be interested if someone more knowledgable could confirm.

I disagree. It isn't stupid, because it was asked. The only stupid question is the one that isn't asked.

It is also interesting and important. It would be good to know, especially when making splits or setting up mating boxes.

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I really dislike to post about something that I'm not sure about or that I have not personally done.Since I doubt there is a definitive answer to this ill throw out my thoughts.I feel most bees become field bees at about three weeks of age. However in the case of nucs started with a few nurse bees and some capped brood they will recruit field bees at a younger age than normal.I could be all wrong here, I often am.

I just reread the OP. I think they orient just before they become field bees.

Your question is at the heart of much very careful research. It is a great question because it is core to the understanding of social insects-- how they use castes to perform complex and differing behaviors. Bee practice "temporal polyethisim" -- a mouthful phrase to describe different jobs at different life stages-- as distinct from ant species which have castes that are fixed at birth.

Researchers have taken "naive" bees (raised trapped in an observation hive) and studied the learning that occurs on the first flight-- down to the formation of brain synapses from a single flight. See: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/0006899382909775

The foremost researcher of orientation flights is Elizabeth A. Capaldi --- she has published several papers -- one where they track the individual bee path with harmonic radar. See: http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v403/n6769/pdf/403537a0.pdf What she learned is the bee track on a narrow sector in a particular flight, but make multiple learning flights to build a full mental map of the hive location.

She reports that bees spend about the same time on each learning flight, but begin with very slow hovering flights, and at the end of the learning period fly very quickly for longer distances. Her bee made their first orientation flight over various days -- ranging from day 4 to day 14 (mean was day 6.2 s.e. 0.29). The number of learning flights ranged from 1 to 18 with a mean of 5.6 (s.e. 0.18). The mean length of the flights was 331 seconds s.e. 59 .

Ziffa, the paper's caption states that antenna rig weighs less than the average load of pollen. Capaldi tested flight duration of bee with and without the antenna, and found no significant difference in time of flight. Bees with antennas could forage.The representative tracks -- showing evolution from the first hovering flight to a foragers beeline is illustrated in the paper.

Well don't drop this yet, I have a hive that is now with virgin queen, but to get her I had to take a frame from another hive and that frame had capped brood. Some of it hatched 2 days ago, and I am assuming the balance will be hatched today. So I plan on counting days until I have orienting......

Well don't drop this yet, I have a hive that is now with virgin queen, but to get her I had to take a frame from another hive and that frame had capped brood. Some of it hatched 2 days ago, and I am assuming the balance will be hatched today. So I plan on counting days until I have orienting......

I'm still not convinced that all the activity isn't house and nurse bees stretching their wings and voiding, along with the orienters. How will you know?